Economic Motives Limiting the Right of Immigration; their Moral Justification.

This paper examines the economic reasons advanced in the U.S. both by some scholars and by some labor unions in order to justify the limitations placed on immigration with the intent of making their moral evaluation. Whenever one speaks of immigration into the U.S., one must therefore always keep this in mind: any easing of immigration laws cannot in any way effect unfavorably the employment of workers, the expansion of investments and the productivity of labor. It is true that if the immigrants are assisted by public funds they will create an additional demand for consumers' goods including durable consumers' goods such as houses. This difficult housing problem rising out of the present distribution of income seems to give a proper justification for the clauses limiting immigration. There is a consistent correlation of direct proportion between immigration cycles and business cycles. From 1890 to 1950 immigration declines while unemployment rises and vice versa. It is furthermore noteworthy to point out that the peculiar aspect upon which the Catholic Church was urged to pronounce its verdict: the right of the human person not to be prevented from immigration into some country. More than once the Holy Father Pope Pius XII has manifested his skeptical views about the economic trend which tends solely towards the increasing of the purchasing power of the raising of the standard of living and the realizing of a program for full employment.